The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-04-24
THE NUISANCE ORDINANCE
A Complaint That Its Provision.
Are Unnecessarily Mild.

| nave reao the ordinance IN
nuisances as it appears in THE Hrp,In
and after the length of time THAI
sive has been under consideration ond
what has been said in relation to TINS
subject through and by the newspapers
it was aturally to be expected that q
strong and vigorous measure would no
brought forth, but 1 confess, for one 70
a sad disappointment. The ordinance
appears to me to be unusually mild and
unnecessarily easy in its provisions.
Section l saysA "Fror
and after the passage of this ordin ance
every privy, privy vault, conmode,
cesspool or water closet, or any other
receptacle whatever of human exere-
ment within the limits of Salt Lake
City, which shall be found in an over
flowing, leaking, FULL filthy, insecure or
| defective condition, or in any other
! state or condition which is dangerous
or detrimental to the public health,
shall be deemed nuisance" Now,
would like 10 ask, who is there that is
capable of determining when such a
place is in leaking condition? And as
| for being full, why such places never
get full Filthy! they are always
so. They are an abomination OF the
worst possible kind, and their effects
upon the health and welfare OF the COM
munity cannot but be for evil. These
| places have been used in many in
| stances for a score of years, aud are
still being so used. consequently, 1t may
safely be asserted that they never fill
up. The question arises, where does all
the excrement and filth go TIC? 1t s
well known that it percolates through
the soil and will inevitably find its way
into water courses. From there it ma
turally crops out in wells, the water of
which may be. used by people for house
hold purposes. And the mere thought
OF such thing is sufficient to stop
people from ever using well water. 1t
is greatly to be deplored that the City
| Council did not take holder and more
determined stand, and prohibit the
sinking or digging of any such places
once and for all. Such a course would
have been commended by all santa
rians and thinking people. And who
would have been injured had such been
| done? No one. People would be re-
| quired to clean out their outhOuses
regularly, and either bury it in their
lots or have it hauled away and buried,
and thus rid the city OF all filth and
x
| on Main Street (and there possibly may
be more) that has followed this plan,
and the result has been more
satisfactory. Every week or so the
| outhOuses are properly cleaned
out and the contents mixed
with soil, hauled over JORDAN and there
buried. If this plan can be successfully
Carried out at very small cost, why
cannot it be made general? There is
nothing whatever TO hinder it and | re-
peat that - is greatly to be deplored
that 1t was not made compulsory.
| WHAT a com muuity ours is to talk But
| ho@ very little is done with it all.
| Section Ii is lax and IN eject gives
permission to butchers TO slaughter on
! their oreIni es. This is very undesir-
adj" and.generally has beer understood
TO be in concraventlon of city ordi-
naHces.
Space viii not permit me to take up
esch section OF the ordinance, but | think
these matters of so much importance
! that they should never be lost sight of.
| There is one more point and l anu done
| for the present. l have failed to find
any restriction OF any kind in relation
to placing barns, sheds, ETC., on the
/ streets.
a man may build fine property
LnaL Is aL once q CreQll ana an ornament
TO the locality and his next door neigh
Dor may stick a dirty filthy COW shed
or stable or manure pile right against
tie partition fence or in such close
proximity as to be not only nuisance
| and detriment to the surroundings,
but an eyesore continually. How many
such places do we find all over
the city built right on the streets? That
such things can be done and are still be-
ing done is reflection on. the city gov
eminent from the beginning to the
present time. We have a beautiful
! CITY, 1t is true, an exceptionally pretty
cityis admitted generally, but why in
| the name of common sense are such
abominable things permitted? Is the
health of the city commensurate with
its beauty, locality, and natural ad-
yantages? l think not. And how
much of this is attributed to filthy
privy vaults, COW pens and other heaps
| of filth and garbage to be found all over?
The present season will see several
large blocks of buildings erected on the
| thickly built up portion of the city and
the same old abominable method OF
digging clubhouse vaults that are never
| intended to be cleaned out will IN
doubtedly be resorted to. How long
shall this state of things continue?
II. D.